In Mark 1:22 the people were astonished at Jesus’ doctrine or teaching because He taught them about and with authority, which He then demonstrated by commanding evil spirits to leave. You have the authority to command, if you are under God’s authority. The command of authority is not praying, laying on of hands, anointing, or the prayer of agreement. Listen as Pastor Dale relates his experience of casting out devils in a 12 year old boy. At the end, the now young man who was delivered of the demons stood up and told of his agreement with Satan that opened the door for the demonic to work in his life and his freedom through Jesus Christ. Fear is a spirit. Get rid of it! Command your body to function correctly. Speak to the object, to the problem. To not use your authority is negligence.

Matt. 8:5-13 (Jesus and the Centurion). Some things are not covered by believing, and some things are not covered by prayer. You may have to speak or do something (heal the sick) with authority instead of praying for the person. The name of Jesus through faith in His name made the man well. You need to believe in the authority to use His name. You represent Jesus fully, regardless of how close you are to the pastor. Do not pamper, accommodate, and use sickness! Matthew’s version of the centurion’s servant’s healing is from the Jewish standpoint. The Roman centurion was saying that Jesus was a higher authority than him and that He could speak the word only and his servant would be healed. He said he wasn’t worthy to have Jesus come under his roof. Jesus is our “roof”- protection, our realm of power and authority. We need to put faith in His authority, that we are under His “roof”. In Luke 7:2-10 the centurion sent elders to Jesus, and they told Him that he was not worthy because he was a Gentile, and he was giving Jesus respect, because by rabbinical law the Gentile does not fellowship with the Jew. The Jews understood authority. Luke’s version was written to the Gentiles. Luke’s account says that the Centurion sent a group of elders to contact Jesus, which is showing delegated authority. When we say, “In Jesus’ name be healed”, it is really Jesus speaking. God does not want us to be independent. He wants us to be in unity with each of us keeping his/her own unique expression. You must submit to God and walk in love for John 10:10 and James 4:7 to work for you. “Agreement” is like a symphony where you maintain your uniqueness. Eph. 1:3 tells us that Jesus blessed us, meaning the body, with every spiritual blessing. Pastor Dale tells the story of the water buffalo calf, lions, a crocodile, and the herd (on YouTube) and also about a unique man named Ron Con. Satan can devour you more easily if you are not connected with the Body.

Acts 8:12-21, Luke 6:12-17, Luke 5:15-17, and James 5:13-16 are the texts for this sermon. The baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues is found in Acts 2, 8, 9, 10, and 19. Although tongues are not mention in every text about the people receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit, there is a tangible manifestation that could be seen by everyone there. Jesus prayed all night. Prayer is a privilege and brings power. The people who came to Jesus came to hear the Word and to be healed. The Word is a priority of the manifestations and always agrees with the Spirit. Jesus didn’t operate in hype. He operated in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Hype dilutes the anointing. You can put pressure on the Holy Spirit to get a more accurate word of knowledge or word of wisdom. Do not try to please people. PLEASE GOD! If there is no power, pray in faith, but do not use faith or lack of it as a “pause button” to postpone the manifestation you need. If you are sick, you call for the elders of the church and let them pray over you. The prayer of faith will save the sick. PRAYER + THE WORD = MANIFESTED POWER. Part 2 is a principle of giving teaching- Using Luke 6:36-38 Pastor Dale expounds on the word “measure”. “Measure” here is not an amount, but a principle or manner of giving, so “it” is given back to you the way you give. For example, Pastor Dale shared how he received $6000 needed for a trip to Russia at “the last minute”, and the Lord showed him how hesitant he (Pastor Dale) had been to give a new suit to the drummer at his church. The “measures” of giving are: 1) Be quick to give. 2) Give your best. 3) Give something everyday. 4) Sow to the Spirit and not to the flesh.

Matt. 8:8. Being under authority protects and empowers you and does not control in a manipulative way. Do not see yourself as the one who is manipulated. Authority is meant to liberate and to build up. You will never have more authority than the authority you are under. In Eph. 5:22-33, we are shown that the authority in the family is derived from the authority of the church, and you can’t understand that authority unless you understand church authority. When you leave a church it is like a divorce. Pastor Dale shares a couple experiences in which he had to submit to authority and how God took care of “you-know-whos”. God, reveal Your Glory to the church!

Eph. 3:8-11; Eph. 4:1-3, 11-13. From the beginning, God wanted a family. He didn’t leave Adam alone. As much as God loves the individual person, it isn’t about one person. It’s about the Body, the Church. The members of the five-fold ministry must love one another and work together to equip the Body. The faster and stronger the Body grows, the faster and stronger the individuals in it grow. Unity doesn’t mean conformity; the Body needs differences. Not everybody sees things the way you do, because you see things in light of the calling you have. Get hooked up with a local church, and don’t float from one part of the Body to another. There’s a limit as to how far we can go, and then someone else has to carry it from there, just like Moses and Joshua. Your point of offense is your point of deliverance, because that’s where the crisis came. Break through the past and tap into what God is doing in the church.

Prov. 4:20-23; Ps. 107:17-20; Matt. 12:34-37;Mark 4:14-19. You must “keep” (protect, guard) your heart. God’s Word is medicine (health) to your heart, and it goes to healing the flesh. Sickness is always from sin, from Adam’s sin on. Jesus Christ came to destroy the curse of sickness. Your words reflect what is in your heart; you must give account of the idle, non-operative words your speak. Fill your heart with the Word of God, because prosperity and healing begin in your heart. Meditate (mutter, repeat) the Word like in the negative you might worry. MAKE THE WORD FIRST PRIORITY IN YOUR LIFE. Satan comes after the Word in your heart to stop your prosperity by putting affliction on you. The Word will produce according to your heart condition. How do you heal the human spirit? Pull out the “weeds” (deceitfulness of riches, lusts or pressures, cares of this world.) Renew your mind- change the patterns of your mind. Control your thoughts with the Word. Pastor Dale shares a testimony of extreme depression and anger that he needed to change in his life.

This is the morning the church members were “grandfathered” in. Eph. 3:5-6, 10. The Body is to serve the Lord, and not to be takers. God gave up Jesus, and He is willing to give you up for the purpose of the Gospel. The joy that Jesus had in going to the cross was God’s plan for the church. People will gather, even in extreme persecution, because they have the vision of what the church is. We are in a family, are fellow partakers and heirs. We are to reveal God’s wisdom to principalities and powers. Is that what your church is doing? Your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, but if you reject Jesus Christ, your name is removed. What is church membership? It is accepting the Lordship of Jesus Christ and finding your function in the body. Look for ways to serve and to give. Rom. 12:3 You must have purpose. Realize who you are and how you fit into the body. You are a member of the person sitting beside you in a church service or wherever you are with other believers.

When life doesn’t turn out as you planned, will you believe in the goodness of the Lord? King David said in Psalm 27:13 “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” In the Hebrew text faint actually means to quit. God’s blessings are for today, in the land of the living. When you want to quit, check your love relationship with Jesus and you’ll find it isn’t very strong at that point. But what keeps you from quitting? Strengthen the love relationship, with God and toward others, and the strength to continue comes through that daily walk with Jesus. In Isaiah 40:28-31 God’s words to you are that He gives and renews strength to the weary as you wait upon Him. But, how do you wait on the Lord? Think about a waiter in a restaurant. That person comes to your table, finds out what you want, comes back to the table often to check with you to see if there is anything else you would like. Be like that waiter and start with these three things to wait on the Lord. First, make the Lord a priority in your daily life. Other things will want to take your attention, but give your attention to the Lord. Second, feed your spirit with the Word. You may need to double your time in the Word. Third, begin again to make a public confession of Him. Purpose in your heart to talk about God. Isaiah 50:4 and James 1:12-17. In situations that cause pain and hurt, wait to hear what the Lord has to say and then use that Word to speak directly into the conflict. The flesh wants to speak pain and hurt, but don’t speak until you’ve heard what the Lord has to say. Don’t make a mistake; don’t allow the pressure to get what you want to become bigger than your service to Him. Every good and perfect gift comes from above. God is always good and you have to believe that of Him. Pastor Dale Armstrong shares a personal testimony of how he wanted to quit and how he wanted to speak out of pain and hurt, but he chose to speak what God showed him to speak and to walk in love. You can’t beat the love of God! Love works! It always works!

II Tim. 1:6-9. Destiny is a process of discovery and revelation. We are a people of destiny, and we don’t quit. The closer you get to your destiny, the more divine and supernatural things will happen. There’s a cost to fulfilling your destiny- you have to fight to get it, because Satan wants to steal what you have never had and to keep you from your fulfilling your destiny. FIGHT FOR YOUR DESTINY! Love finds power in you to deliver someone else. God saved us and called us with a holy calling according to His purpose and grace. Eph. 2:8-10 We are saved by grace. God loves you even with what you’ve done and haven’t done; you can’t earn salvation or His love. Find your purpose in salvation. Sin has consequences, relevance, and permanence. Sin means you’ve missed the mark. To fulfill your destiny you must get on the right road.

The anointing in a body of believers will peak, then plateau, then peak, and so on, but if you can keep strife and sin out, the anointing will always increase after each plateau. A spirit of faith gets into a group of people and is contagious. Be around people who are audacious with their faith. John 14:12. You can become known for your level of faith. There are two factors involved in the corporate anointing and spirit of faith: 1) the individual’s faith and 2) the sovereignty of God. Sovereign does NOT mean ARBITRARY! It means supreme and most powerful. God will call one person to be a prophet and other one an evangelist. Jesus expects us to do everything He did and more. Follow the Word, not signs and miracles. Do the work that Jesus did: He healed and ministered to the poor among other things. He taught the people, so they would believe and receive the Word and works. (Mark 5:1-5) You can’t control the move of God (John 5:1-15). Stay away from things that add to what’s in the Bible (angels, demons, etc.). When you obey God in one point, other things will happen, because it stirs up other gifts of the Spirit. Trust the Holy Spirit to reveal to you if you need to repent. Check up on your love walk if you aren’t getting results in your own life. Revival can stir up the “dirt at the bottom of the rocks in the aquarium”. There are seasons of the power of God, but His Word is constant.

Ps. 91:1-2. The secret place is your intimacy with God. What you say about God determines your relationship with Him. Are you saying He is your strength, He is your refuge, He is your help? He is whatever you say about Him when you are dwelling with Him. Philemon 6. Confess who you are in Christ Jesus: the wisdom of God is in me; the Lord leads me; I am the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Confess what you desire, not what you see and are experiencing. Joshua 1:5-6; Heb. 13:5 and 6. We should not be covetous, but be content because God said He will never leave or forsake us. Listen to Him, even if you are deep in sin, so that we may boldly say, “He is My Helper.” Be bold about the Bible. The more your conscience agrees with the Bible, the more your faith increases. SPEAK GOD’S WORD to your business or whatever challenge you have. Faith will work, because it comes from God, not from you. Mark 11:22-24. You get what you say. The Bible in Mark 11:23 doesn’t say you’ll get whatever you believe, but whatever you say. Watch what you say, because you are what you have been saying. Master the thoughts in your head before going to bed and when you wake up. Confess: my marriage is blessed. He gives His beloved sleep. Start confessing one thing all night and during the day.

Mark 11:14-23.Your words change lives, so use your words to bless. The disciples heard Jesus’ confession to the fig tree. Jesus told the disciples that Lazarus was sleeping, not dead, because He was confessing the blessing. Have the faith of God, believing that what you say you will get. You are to believe in all that you say, so watch what you say. How can you have the faith of God? Rom. 4:16; call those things that be not as though they are. It’s NOT, call those that are as though they aren’t. The law of faith is never denial. Is. 55:8-10 God’s thoughts are not our thoughts and vice versa. He is never depressed, wondering what to do or how to pay the bills. Change how you are thinking. God’s Word will not return void, so speak His Word aloud to your circumstances and to yourself. Rom. 1:16 The gospel is the power of God to salvation. Peter walked on the water from one word from Jesus, “Come!” The boat didn’t sink, because Jesus said, “Let us pass over to the other side.” James 3:2-5. Learn to bridle your tongue. Where you are is because of your words. Speak in the right direction. Where are your words guiding you?

In I Cor. 11:23-33 Paul says that the Lord taught him about holy communion. Twice He said, “Do this in remembrance of Me.” To remember is connected with covenant, meaning claiming the benefits of covenant. We are to remember the covenant blessings. We know the covenant of God with man as sins being forgiven, but it is also healing for the body and deliverance. We take communion so that we are made holy. Giving our tithes and offerings is one way we worship God. He rebukes the devourer for our sakes. Rom. 6:2 says that we are dead to sin. When we’re born again, we aren’t fixed. We die, so that we can be born again as new creations. We are members one of another. We’re part of God’s covenant. Baptism started with the rite of passage. It is identification with the death of Christ. The baptismal pool symbolizes a tomb and death. The tomb then becomes a womb for a new birth.